---
title: Asset Management
sort: 2
contributors:
  - skipjack
  - michael-ciniawsky
  - TheDutchCoder
  - sudarsangp
  - chenxsan
  - EugeneHlushko
  - AnayaDesign
  - wizardofhogwarts
  - astonizer
  - snitin315
---

If you've been following the guides from the start, you will now have a small project that shows "Hello webpack". Now let's try to incorporate some other assets, like images, to see how they can be handled.

Prior to webpack, front-end developers would use tools like [grunt](https://gruntjs.com/) and [gulp](https://gulpjs.com/) to process these assets and move them from their `/src` folder into their `/dist` or `/build` directory. The same idea was used for JavaScript modules, but tools like webpack will **dynamically bundle** all dependencies (creating what's known as a [dependency graph](/concepts/dependency-graph)). This is great because every module now _explicitly states its dependencies_ and we'll avoid bundling modules that aren't in use.

One of the coolest webpack features is that you can also _include any other type of file_, besides JavaScript, for which there is a loader or built-in [Asset Modules](/guides/asset-modules/) support. This means that the same benefits listed above for JavaScript (e.g. explicit dependencies) can be applied to everything used in building a website or web app. Let's start with CSS, as you may already be familiar with that setup.

## Setup

Let's make a minor change to our project before we get started:

**dist/index.html**

```diff
 <!DOCTYPE html>
 <html>
   <head>
     <meta charset="utf-8" />
-    <title>Getting Started</title>
+    <title>Asset Management</title>
   </head>
   <body>
-    <script src="main.js"></script>
+    <script src="bundle.js"></script>
   </body>
 </html>
```

**webpack.config.js**

```diff
 const path = require('path');

 module.exports = {
   entry: './src/index.js',
   output: {
-    filename: 'main.js',
+    filename: 'bundle.js',
     path: path.resolve(__dirname, 'dist'),
   },
 };
```

## Loading CSS

In order to `import` a CSS file from within a JavaScript module, you need to install and add the [style-loader](/loaders/style-loader) and [css-loader](/loaders/css-loader) to your [`module` configuration](/configuration/module):

```bash
npm install --save-dev style-loader css-loader
```

**webpack.config.js**

```diff
 const path = require('path');

 module.exports = {
   entry: './src/index.js',
   output: {
     filename: 'bundle.js',
     path: path.resolve(__dirname, 'dist'),
   },
+  module: {
+    rules: [
+      {
+        test: /\.css$/i,
+        use: ['style-loader', 'css-loader'],
+      },
+    ],
+  },
 };
```

Module loaders can be chained. Each loader in the chain applies transformations to the processed resource. A chain is executed in reverse order. The first loader passes its result (resource with applied transformations) to the next one, and so forth. Finally, webpack expects JavaScript to be returned by the last loader in the chain.

The above order of loaders should be maintained: [`'style-loader'`](/loaders/style-loader) comes first and followed by [`'css-loader'`](/loaders/css-loader). If this convention is not followed, webpack is likely to throw errors.

T> webpack uses a regular expression to determine which files it should look for and serve to a specific loader. In this case, any file that ends with `.css` will be served to the `style-loader` and the `css-loader`.

This enables you to `import './style.css'` into the file that depends on that styling. Now, when that module is run, a `<style>` tag with the stringified css will be inserted into the `<head>` of your html file.

Let's try it out by adding a new `style.css` file to our project and import it in our `index.js`:

**project**

```diff
  webpack-demo
  |- package.json
  |- package-lock.json
  |- webpack.config.js
  |- /dist
    |- bundle.js
    |- index.html
  |- /src
+   |- style.css
    |- index.js
  |- /node_modules
```

**src/style.css**

```css
.hello {
  color: red;
}
```

**src/index.js**

```diff
 import _ from 'lodash';
+import './style.css';

 function component() {
   const element = document.createElement('div');

   // Lodash, now imported by this script
   element.innerHTML = _.join(['Hello', 'webpack'], ' ');
+  element.classList.add('hello');

   return element;
 }

 document.body.appendChild(component());
```

Now run your build command:

```bash
$ npm run build

...
[webpack-cli] Compilation finished
asset bundle.js 72.6 KiB [emitted] [minimized] (name: main) 1 related asset
runtime modules 1000 bytes 5 modules
orphan modules 326 bytes [orphan] 1 module
cacheable modules 539 KiB
  modules by path ./node_modules/ 538 KiB
    ./node_modules/lodash/lodash.js 530 KiB [built] [code generated]
    ./node_modules/style-loader/dist/runtime/injectStylesIntoStyleTag.js 6.67 KiB [built] [code generated]
    ./node_modules/css-loader/dist/runtime/api.js 1.57 KiB [built] [code generated]
  modules by path ./src/ 965 bytes
    ./src/index.js + 1 modules 639 bytes [built] [code generated]
    ./node_modules/css-loader/dist/cjs.js!./src/style.css 326 bytes [built] [code generated]
webpack 5.4.0 compiled successfully in 2231 ms
```

Open up `dist/index.html` in your browser again and you should see that `Hello webpack` is now styled in red. To see what webpack did, inspect the page (don't view the page source, as it won't show you the result, because the `<style>` tag is dynamically created by JavaScript) and look at the page's head tags. It should contain the style block that we imported in `index.js`.

Note that you can, and in most cases should, [minimize css](/plugins/mini-css-extract-plugin/#minimizing-for-production) for better load times in production. On top of that, loaders exist for pretty much any flavor of CSS you can think of – [postcss](/loaders/postcss-loader), [sass](/loaders/sass-loader), and [less](/loaders/less-loader) to name a few.

## Loading Images

So now we're pulling in our CSS, but what about our images like backgrounds and icons? As of webpack 5, using the built-in [Asset Modules](/guides/asset-modules/) we can easily incorporate those in our system as well:

**webpack.config.js**

```diff
 const path = require('path');

 module.exports = {
   entry: './src/index.js',
   output: {
     filename: 'bundle.js',
     path: path.resolve(__dirname, 'dist'),
   },
   module: {
     rules: [
       {
         test: /\.css$/i,
         use: ['style-loader', 'css-loader'],
       },
+      {
+        test: /\.(png|svg|jpg|jpeg|gif)$/i,
+        type: 'asset/resource',
+      },
     ],
   },
 };
```

Now, when you `import MyImage from './my-image.png'`, that image will be processed and added to your `output` directory _and_ the `MyImage` variable will contain the final url of that image after processing. When using the [css-loader](/loaders/css-loader), as shown above, a similar process will occur for `url('./my-image.png')` within your CSS. The loader will recognize this is a local file, and replace the `'./my-image.png'` path with the final path to the image in your `output` directory. The [html-loader](/loaders/html-loader) handles `<img src="./my-image.png" />` in the same manner.

Let's add an image to our project and see how this works, you can use any image you like:

**project**

```diff
  webpack-demo
  |- package.json
  |- package-lock.json
  |- webpack.config.js
  |- /dist
    |- bundle.js
    |- index.html
  |- /src
+   |- icon.png
    |- style.css
    |- index.js
  |- /node_modules
```

**src/index.js**

```diff
 import _ from 'lodash';
 import './style.css';
+import Icon from './icon.png';

 function component() {
   const element = document.createElement('div');

   // Lodash, now imported by this script
   element.innerHTML = _.join(['Hello', 'webpack'], ' ');
   element.classList.add('hello');

+  // Add the image to our existing div.
+  const myIcon = new Image();
+  myIcon.src = Icon;
+
+  element.appendChild(myIcon);
+
   return element;
 }

 document.body.appendChild(component());
```

**src/style.css**

```diff
 .hello {
   color: red;
+  background: url('./icon.png');
 }
```

Let's create a new build and open up the `index.html` file again:

```bash
$ npm run build

...
[webpack-cli] Compilation finished
assets by status 9.88 KiB [cached] 1 asset
asset bundle.js 73.4 KiB [emitted] [minimized] (name: main) 1 related asset
runtime modules 1.82 KiB 6 modules
orphan modules 326 bytes [orphan] 1 module
cacheable modules 540 KiB (javascript) 9.88 KiB (asset)
  modules by path ./node_modules/ 539 KiB
    modules by path ./node_modules/css-loader/dist/runtime/*.js 2.38 KiB
      ./node_modules/css-loader/dist/runtime/api.js 1.57 KiB [built] [code generated]
      ./node_modules/css-loader/dist/runtime/getUrl.js 830 bytes [built] [code generated]
    ./node_modules/lodash/lodash.js 530 KiB [built] [code generated]
    ./node_modules/style-loader/dist/runtime/injectStylesIntoStyleTag.js 6.67 KiB [built] [code generated]
  modules by path ./src/ 1.45 KiB (javascript) 9.88 KiB (asset)
    ./src/index.js + 1 modules 794 bytes [built] [code generated]
    ./src/icon.png 42 bytes (javascript) 9.88 KiB (asset) [built] [code generated]
    ./node_modules/css-loader/dist/cjs.js!./src/style.css 648 bytes [built] [code generated]
webpack 5.4.0 compiled successfully in 1972 ms
```

If all went well, you should now see your icon as a repeating background, as well as an `img` element beside our `Hello webpack` text. If you inspect this element, you'll see that the actual filename has changed to something like `29822eaa871e8eadeaa4.png`. This means webpack found our file in the `src` folder and processed it!

## Loading Fonts

So what about other assets like fonts? The Asset Modules will take any file you load through them and output it to your build directory. This means we can use them for any kind of file, including fonts. Let's update our `webpack.config.js` to handle font files:

**webpack.config.js**

```diff
 const path = require('path');

 module.exports = {
   entry: './src/index.js',
   output: {
     filename: 'bundle.js',
     path: path.resolve(__dirname, 'dist'),
   },
   module: {
     rules: [
       {
         test: /\.css$/i,
         use: ['style-loader', 'css-loader'],
       },
       {
         test: /\.(png|svg|jpg|jpeg|gif)$/i,
         type: 'asset/resource',
       },
+      {
+        test: /\.(woff|woff2|eot|ttf|otf)$/i,
+        type: 'asset/resource',
+      },
     ],
   },
 };
```

Add some font files to your project:

**project**

```diff
  webpack-demo
  |- package.json
  |- package-lock.json
  |- webpack.config.js
  |- /dist
    |- bundle.js
    |- index.html
  |- /src
+   |- my-font.woff
+   |- my-font.woff2
    |- icon.png
    |- style.css
    |- index.js
  |- /node_modules
```

With the loader configured and fonts in place, you can incorporate them via an `@font-face` declaration. The local `url(...)` directive will be picked up by webpack, as it was with the image:

**src/style.css**

```diff
+@font-face {
+  font-family: 'MyFont';
+  src: url('./my-font.woff2') format('woff2'),
+    url('./my-font.woff') format('woff');
+  font-weight: 600;
+  font-style: normal;
+}
+
 .hello {
   color: red;
+  font-family: 'MyFont';
   background: url('./icon.png');
 }
```

Now run a new build and let's see if webpack handled our fonts:

```bash
$ npm run build

...
[webpack-cli] Compilation finished
assets by status 9.88 KiB [cached] 1 asset
assets by info 33.2 KiB [immutable]
  asset 55055dbfc7c6a83f60ba.woff 18.8 KiB [emitted] [immutable] [from: src/my-font.woff] (auxiliary name: main)
  asset 8f717b802eaab4d7fb94.woff2 14.5 KiB [emitted] [immutable] [from: src/my-font.woff2] (auxiliary name: main)
asset bundle.js 73.7 KiB [emitted] [minimized] (name: main) 1 related asset
runtime modules 1.82 KiB 6 modules
orphan modules 326 bytes [orphan] 1 module
cacheable modules 541 KiB (javascript) 43.1 KiB (asset)
  javascript modules 541 KiB
    modules by path ./node_modules/ 539 KiB
      modules by path ./node_modules/css-loader/dist/runtime/*.js 2.38 KiB 2 modules
      ./node_modules/lodash/lodash.js 530 KiB [built] [code generated]
      ./node_modules/style-loader/dist/runtime/injectStylesIntoStyleTag.js 6.67 KiB [built] [code generated]
    modules by path ./src/ 1.98 KiB
      ./src/index.js + 1 modules 794 bytes [built] [code generated]
      ./node_modules/css-loader/dist/cjs.js!./src/style.css 1.21 KiB [built] [code generated]
  asset modules 126 bytes (javascript) 43.1 KiB (asset)
    ./src/icon.png 42 bytes (javascript) 9.88 KiB (asset) [built] [code generated]
    ./src/my-font.woff2 42 bytes (javascript) 14.5 KiB (asset) [built] [code generated]
    ./src/my-font.woff 42 bytes (javascript) 18.8 KiB (asset) [built] [code generated]
webpack 5.4.0 compiled successfully in 2142 ms
```

Open up `dist/index.html` again and see if our `Hello webpack` text has changed to the new font. If all is well, you should see the changes.

## Loading Data

Another useful asset that can be loaded is data, like JSON files, CSVs, TSVs, and XML. Support for JSON is actually built-in, similar to NodeJS, meaning `import Data from './data.json'` will work by default. To import CSVs, TSVs, and XML you could use the [csv-loader](https://github.com/theplatapi/csv-loader) and [xml-loader](https://github.com/gisikw/xml-loader). Let's handle loading all three:

```bash
npm install --save-dev csv-loader xml-loader
```

**webpack.config.js**

```diff
 const path = require('path');

 module.exports = {
   entry: './src/index.js',
   output: {
     filename: 'bundle.js',
     path: path.resolve(__dirname, 'dist'),
   },
   module: {
     rules: [
       {
         test: /\.css$/i,
         use: ['style-loader', 'css-loader'],
       },
       {
         test: /\.(png|svg|jpg|jpeg|gif)$/i,
         type: 'asset/resource',
       },
       {
         test: /\.(woff|woff2|eot|ttf|otf)$/i,
         type: 'asset/resource',
       },
+      {
+        test: /\.(csv|tsv)$/i,
+        use: ['csv-loader'],
+      },
+      {
+        test: /\.xml$/i,
+        use: ['xml-loader'],
+      },
     ],
   },
 };
```

Add some data files to your project:

**project**

```diff
  webpack-demo
  |- package.json
  |- package-lock.json
  |- webpack.config.js
  |- /dist
    |- bundle.js
    |- index.html
  |- /src
+   |- data.xml
+   |- data.csv
    |- my-font.woff
    |- my-font.woff2
    |- icon.png
    |- style.css
    |- index.js
  |- /node_modules
```

**src/data.xml**

```xml
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<note>
  <to>Mary</to>
  <from>John</from>
  <heading>Reminder</heading>
  <body>Call Cindy on Tuesday</body>
</note>
```

**src/data.csv**

```csv
to,from,heading,body
Mary,John,Reminder,Call Cindy on Tuesday
Zoe,Bill,Reminder,Buy orange juice
Autumn,Lindsey,Letter,I miss you
```

Now you can `import` any one of those four types of data (JSON, CSV, TSV, XML) and the `Data` variable you import, will contain parsed JSON for consumption:

**src/index.js**

```diff
 import _ from 'lodash';
 import './style.css';
 import Icon from './icon.png';
+import Data from './data.xml';
+import Notes from './data.csv';

 function component() {
   const element = document.createElement('div');

   // Lodash, now imported by this script
   element.innerHTML = _.join(['Hello', 'webpack'], ' ');
   element.classList.add('hello');

   // Add the image to our existing div.
   const myIcon = new Image();
   myIcon.src = Icon;

   element.appendChild(myIcon);

+  console.log(Data);
+  console.log(Notes);
+
   return element;
 }

 document.body.appendChild(component());
```

Re-run the `npm run build` command and open `dist/index.html`. If you look at the console in your developer tools, you should be able to see your imported data being logged to the console!

T> This can be especially helpful when implementing some sort of data visualization using a tool like [d3](https://github.com/d3). Instead of making an ajax request and parsing the data at runtime you can load it into your module during the build process so that the parsed data is ready to go as soon as the module hits the browser.

W> Only the default export of JSON modules can be used without warning.

```javascript
// No warning
import data from './data.json';

// Warning shown, this is not allowed by the spec.
import { foo } from './data.json';
```

### Customize parser of JSON modules

It's possible to import any `toml`, `yaml` or `json5` files as a JSON module by using a [custom parser](/configuration/module/#ruleparserparse) instead of a specific webpack loader.

Let's say you have a `data.toml`, a `data.yaml` and a `data.json5` files under `src` folder:

**src/data.toml**

```toml
title = "TOML Example"

[owner]
name = "Tom Preston-Werner"
organization = "GitHub"
bio = "GitHub Cofounder & CEO\nLikes tater tots and beer."
dob = 1979-05-27T07:32:00Z
```

**src/data.yaml**

```yaml
title: YAML Example
owner:
  name: Tom Preston-Werner
  organization: GitHub
  bio: |-
    GitHub Cofounder & CEO
    Likes tater tots and beer.
  dob: 1979-05-27T07:32:00.000Z
```

**src/data.json5**

```json5
{
  // comment
  title: 'JSON5 Example',
  owner: {
    name: 'Tom Preston-Werner',
    organization: 'GitHub',
    bio: 'GitHub Cofounder & CEO\n\
Likes tater tots and beer.',
    dob: '1979-05-27T07:32:00.000Z',
  },
}
```

Install `toml`, `yamljs` and `json5` packages first:

```bash
npm install toml yamljs json5 --save-dev
```

And configure them in your webpack configuration:

**webpack.config.js**

```diff
 const path = require('path');
+const toml = require('toml');
+const yaml = require('yamljs');
+const json5 = require('json5');

 module.exports = {
   entry: './src/index.js',
   output: {
     filename: 'bundle.js',
     path: path.resolve(__dirname, 'dist'),
   },
   module: {
     rules: [
       {
         test: /\.css$/i,
         use: ['style-loader', 'css-loader'],
       },
       {
         test: /\.(png|svg|jpg|jpeg|gif)$/i,
         type: 'asset/resource',
       },
       {
         test: /\.(woff|woff2|eot|ttf|otf)$/i,
         type: 'asset/resource',
       },
       {
         test: /\.(csv|tsv)$/i,
         use: ['csv-loader'],
       },
       {
         test: /\.xml$/i,
         use: ['xml-loader'],
       },
+      {
+        test: /\.toml$/i,
+        type: 'json',
+        parser: {
+          parse: toml.parse,
+        },
+      },
+      {
+        test: /\.yaml$/i,
+        type: 'json',
+        parser: {
+          parse: yaml.parse,
+        },
+      },
+      {
+        test: /\.json5$/i,
+        type: 'json',
+        parser: {
+          parse: json5.parse,
+        },
+      },
     ],
   },
 };
```

**src/index.js**

```diff
 import _ from 'lodash';
 import './style.css';
 import Icon from './icon.png';
 import Data from './data.xml';
 import Notes from './data.csv';
+import toml from './data.toml';
+import yaml from './data.yaml';
+import json from './data.json5';
+
+console.log(toml.title); // output `TOML Example`
+console.log(toml.owner.name); // output `Tom Preston-Werner`
+
+console.log(yaml.title); // output `YAML Example`
+console.log(yaml.owner.name); // output `Tom Preston-Werner`
+
+console.log(json.title); // output `JSON5 Example`
+console.log(json.owner.name); // output `Tom Preston-Werner`

 function component() {
   const element = document.createElement('div');

   // Lodash, now imported by this script
   element.innerHTML = _.join(['Hello', 'webpack'], ' ');
   element.classList.add('hello');

   // Add the image to our existing div.
   const myIcon = new Image();
   myIcon.src = Icon;

   element.appendChild(myIcon);

   console.log(Data);
   console.log(Notes);

   return element;
 }

 document.body.appendChild(component());
```

Re-run the `npm run build` command and open `dist/index.html`. You should be able to see your imported data being logged to the console!

## Global Assets

The coolest part of everything mentioned above, is that loading assets this way allows you to group modules and assets in a more intuitive way. Instead of relying on a global `/assets` directory that contains everything, you can group assets with the code that uses them. For example, a structure like this can be useful:

```diff
- |- /assets
+ |– /components
+ |  |– /my-component
+ |  |  |– index.jsx
+ |  |  |– index.css
+ |  |  |– icon.svg
+ |  |  |– img.png
```

This setup makes your code a lot more portable as everything that is closely coupled now lives together. Let's say you want to use `/my-component` in another project, copy or move it into the `/components` directory over there. As long as you've installed any _external dependencies_ and your _configuration has the same loaders_ defined, you should be good to go.

However, let's say you're locked into your old ways or you have some assets that are shared between multiple components (views, templates, modules, etc.). It's still possible to store these assets in a base directory and even use [aliasing](/configuration/resolve/#resolvealias) to make them easier to `import`.

## Wrapping up

For the next guides we won't be using all the different assets we've used in this guide, so let's do some cleanup so we're prepared for the next piece of the guides [Output Management](https://webpack.js.org/guides/output-management/):

**project**

```diff
  webpack-demo
  |- package.json
  |- package-lock.json
  |- webpack.config.js
  |- /dist
    |- bundle.js
    |- index.html
  |- /src
-   |- data.csv
-   |- data.json5
-   |- data.toml
-   |- data.xml
-   |- data.yaml
-   |- icon.png
-   |- my-font.woff
-   |- my-font.woff2
-   |- style.css
    |- index.js
  |- /node_modules
```

**webpack.config.js**

```diff
 const path = require('path');
-const toml = require('toml');
-const yaml = require('yamljs');
-const json5 = require('json5');

 module.exports = {
   entry: './src/index.js',
   output: {
     filename: 'bundle.js',
     path: path.resolve(__dirname, 'dist'),
   },
-  module: {
-    rules: [
-      {
-        test: /\.css$/i,
-        use: ['style-loader', 'css-loader'],
-      },
-      {
-        test: /\.(png|svg|jpg|jpeg|gif)$/i,
-        type: 'asset/resource',
-      },
-      {
-        test: /\.(woff|woff2|eot|ttf|otf)$/i,
-        type: 'asset/resource',
-      },
-      {
-        test: /\.(csv|tsv)$/i,
-        use: ['csv-loader'],
-      },
-      {
-        test: /\.xml$/i,
-        use: ['xml-loader'],
-      },
-      {
-        test: /\.toml$/i,
-        type: 'json',
-        parser: {
-          parse: toml.parse,
-        },
-      },
-      {
-        test: /\.yaml$/i,
-        type: 'json',
-        parser: {
-          parse: yaml.parse,
-        },
-      },
-      {
-        test: /\.json5$/i,
-        type: 'json',
-        parser: {
-          parse: json5.parse,
-        },
-      },
-    ],
-  },
 };
```

**src/index.js**

```diff
 import _ from 'lodash';
-import './style.css';
-import Icon from './icon.png';
-import Data from './data.xml';
-import Notes from './data.csv';
-import toml from './data.toml';
-import yaml from './data.yaml';
-import json from './data.json5';
-
-console.log(toml.title); // output `TOML Example`
-console.log(toml.owner.name); // output `Tom Preston-Werner`
-
-console.log(yaml.title); // output `YAML Example`
-console.log(yaml.owner.name); // output `Tom Preston-Werner`
-
-console.log(json.title); // output `JSON5 Example`
-console.log(json.owner.name); // output `Tom Preston-Werner`

 function component() {
   const element = document.createElement('div');

-  // Lodash, now imported by this script
   element.innerHTML = _.join(['Hello', 'webpack'], ' ');
-  element.classList.add('hello');
-
-  // Add the image to our existing div.
-  const myIcon = new Image();
-  myIcon.src = Icon;
-
-  element.appendChild(myIcon);
-
-  console.log(Data);
-  console.log(Notes);

   return element;
 }

 document.body.appendChild(component());
```

And remove those dependencies we added before:

```bash
npm uninstall css-loader csv-loader json5 style-loader toml xml-loader yamljs
```

## Next guide

Let's move on to [Output Management](https://webpack.js.org/guides/output-management/)

## Further Reading

- [Loading Fonts](https://survivejs.com/webpack/loading/fonts/) on SurviveJS
